When The Anthoines Visit The Georgia Coast…

February 20, 2012 By 13 Comments

… bad things happen.

Jason and I have spent a lot of time on the Georgia coast, namely St. Simons Island and Sea Island.

We love it so much there we even got married there! (Look at me, I’m such a BABY!)

We’ve celebrated anniversaries, stayed for Georgia/Florida games, even spent a week at Sea Island the week after Charlie was buried in the most blinding pain and heartache ever.

Times there have been both happy and sad.

But when we’re there? Bad things tend to happen to other people.

In fact, it got to the point where we would make sure that my dad didn’t fly his place while we were on vacation or my sister’s family didn’t travel while we were at St. Simons. They laughed, but I’m SURE we saved their lives 1000 times over.

Think I’m kidding? Read on.

It all started way back when I was a nanny on St. Simons. It was the year of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I had a chance to go to the Olympics with the family I nannied for, but opted to stay back and hang out on the Island. I had had a very funny feeling in my gut all along about the Olympics and felt like I’d be safer at the beach than there. My gut was right. Eric Robert Rudolph decided Atlanta’s Olympics would be a great place to set off a freaking pipe bomb.

That same summer, while I was in St. Simons, TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed over the Atlantic Ocean. On the plane was a young woman my age (20 — at the time) from Macon who went to a rival high school. It was heartbreaking for a million reasons. I think that was the first time I realized that I was *this close* to being an adult and that things like this would start to impact my life and potentially impact people I know.

During our wedding week in 1998, the fastest woman alive, Florence Griffith-Joyner died at age 38 from epilepsy.

We were vacationing in St. Simons, at the Queen’s Court, in July of 1999 when John F. Kennedy, Jr and his wife Carolyn and her sister were killed when his Piper Saratoga crashed off Martha’s Vineyard.

Later that year, on Halloween weekend, we would tempt fate by going back to St. Simons for the Georgia/Florida game. PARTY TIME, Y’ALL! Well, until EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed. Families of 217 people were forever changed that day when the plane crashed off of Nantucket Sound.

Believe me now? Seriously, we’re trouble.

There’s more!

In August of 2001, R&B singer Aaliyah, whose songs I cannot name, died in a plane crash coming back to the US from The Bahamas. At 22 years old, a very bright and talented young woman was killed along with 8 other passengers.

The trip to St. Simons was an interesting one in April of 2002. It was like the trifecta, y’all.

  1. Our first pregnancy was conceived. (I would find out on June 13 that there was no heartbeat)
  2. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes died in a car accident in Honduras. At age 30, after being part of the awesome TLC and making waves by setting fire to Andre Rison’s shoes and burning down their mansion that they bought with their bazillion dollars, Left Eye went out in a crash in (of all things) a Mitsubishi. I mean, it would sound better if it was a Lamborghini or Ferrari, right? Anyway, sad days for the CrazySexyCool fans of Left Eye.
  3. My Grandaddy died. I remember where I was sitting on the beach at Sea Island when my phone rang. I knew it was coming and my mom didn’t even have to say anything when I answered. I had told him before we left (Jason was speaking at a conference) that I loved him and that it was ok for him to go before I came back. Put the whole Left Eye thing in perspective, huh?

We know there have been other crazy things that have happened but it’s been a while since we’ve doomed anyone by being at the Georgia Coast.

Until Jason went camping with some guys last weekend at Sapelo Island. Dang if Whitney Houston didn’t up and die while he was there. I texted him to tell him and the only thing he said was, “Well, I AM at the coast, so somebody had to die.”

The moral of this story I’m telling you today is this:

Don’t fly or drive or leave the bed when the Anthoine Family is at St. Simons, Sea Island or anywhere near the Georgia coastline. Your life could be in danger.

 

Filed Under: Memories, Thoughts, Travel Tagged With: , , , , ,

SOC Sunday: Impromptu Plans

February 19, 2012 By 2 Comments

I’m foregoing the prompt from Fadra today. But I’m still doing Stream of Consciousness Sunday. I just love this 5 minutes of writing. It’s so refreshing!

#SOCsunday

Yesterday, Saturday, we had no plans. None at all. It was divine.

However, I got myself up and dressed and put on makeup and real clothes before it was even 8am. I’m not sure why.

Sat down. Jumped on Twitter. Started having a conversation with LawMomma.

See, LawMomma lives in our old town. She and I have mutual friends. She went to law school with people I went to high school with. Hell, we even use the same hooha doctor (shoutout, Dr. P)!

But we’ve never actually met.

I would say we’re actually “friends,” too.

Friends who have never met in person. What a TRAGEDY!

Then this happened:

That was at 9:10. I was in her driveway, with bagels, at 11:15.

It was like we’d known each other all our lives. Nothing uncomfortable. Nothing strange. Although, her most adorable, curly-headed son thought I was kinda strange at first. But that was probably because I wanted to eat him up or take him home with me.

We hung out for hours. Had wine at 1:00, because WHY NOT? Talked, talked, talked more.

Then a mutual friend came over with her son for the boys to play. More chatter. More and more feeling like we were long-lost friends.

I finally had to peel myself off the chair and drive home around 4.

But not without getting a good hug out of her first!

 

It totally won’t be 18 months before we see each other again. THAT I know for sure!

******************************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post. (on Fadra’s sidebar)
  • Link up your post on her post.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Filed Under: Friends, SOC Sunday Tagged With: , , ,

#FineChinaFriday: February 17, 2012

February 17, 2012 By 2 Comments

After the exciting, first-ever #FineChinaFriday, last week, this week can only get bigger and better! Right?

If you’re just seeing this for the first time, you can see the post about it here and then the Saturday Recap post here.

Caught up now?

This was one of the most exciting parts of it, though:

Noritake caught wind of #FineChinaFriday and shared it on their Facebook wall and Twitter!

Don’t forget. Anything goes. Steak and potato. Take-out Chinese. Domino’s or Digiorno pizza. Cereal or popcorn (looking at you, Dawn).

Now, go forth and be fancy!

I want to know about it, though.

  • I’m going to put a linky so you can share any blog posts you might write (You should do that, you know). Grab the button above and link up!
  • If you share it on Facebook, tag Jana’s Thinking Place in it (you should like my page, too).
  • If you share it on Twitter, follow me on Twitter first and then use the hashtag #FineChinaFriday.
  • If you share it on Pinterest, follow me there and you can use the hashtag #FineChinaFriday there, too.
  • Using Instagram? You can follow me there, too. I’m jana0926 there as well! Use that SAME hashtag.

Filed Under: #FineChinaFriday Tagged With: ,

A Top Hat, A Rose, And A Night To Remember

February 16, 2012 By 26 Comments

Henry had a date for Valentine’s Day. He’s only 7.

Way back when, a long time ago, Henry started at a Montessori school where we lived in Macon. They had the most adorable class of 2 year olds ever. They became a very close-knit group. They all moved up together to Primary and stayed together for the next two years.

In that group, was a precious little girl, I’ll call her D. Around the time they were 4, I started hearing about D being Henry’s girlfriend. So did D’s mom. That’s cute enough, right?

Usually you hear about a girlfriend and then the next week it’s another one. Not the case here. Here we are 3 years later. We moved from Fort Valley to Atlanta. D’s mom and sisters moved from Macon to way north Atlanta. They see each other occasionally, including running into them at the Pumpkin Patch an hour from both of our homes.

Anyway, about a month ago, we were in Publix and the Valentine’s candy was out already. He told me, “Mom, I need to go ahead and get this box of candy for D so they don’t sell out.” We bought the candy and put it in the cabinet. When we were unloading the groceries, he asked me if he could take D out for dinner on Valentine’s. I said “sure,” and didn’t think anything else about it.

A week before Valentine’s day, he asked me again. I told him I would see and immediately emailed D’s mom to ask if we could come up and take her out for a quick dinner — you know, at Chick Fil A or something. She said yes, and Henry called to ask her.

IT. WAS. THE. MOST. ADORABLE. THING. EVER. (up until that point)

She squealed like a new sorority girl on Bid Day.

There was chatter between the mom and I. About what, when, where, and of course the cuteness of it all. I mean, they’re 7. It’s still cute.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day. School, school party (where all the kids and the teacher were asking me about Henry’s date), snack, shower… time to get ready.

This. This is the face of nervousness. He had just told me his tummy was nervous.

Top hat, courtesy of his magic set. Candy. Roses — one for each of the 3 girls.

Jason got home and we hit the road.

We got there and he rang the bell and we were invited in. It felt a bit like prom.

 

She was so prim and proper and beautiful in her red velvet dress, fancy coat, A DAB OF PERFUME OMG I DIE! Her hair was fixed and her shoes were sparkly.

And he was smitten.

He opened the door for her to the car and we were off.

To Zaxby’s.

The conversation in the car was amazing. Jokes, chatter about school, questions about friends. Then she says, “Henry, you look nice.” To which he responds, “Thanks, you look pretty.”

Have you turned into a puddle of goo yet? I have.

So we get to Zaxby’s for our fine dining on fried chicken fingers and fries. He orders, she orders, he pays and goes off to get their drinks.

Jason and I went to order — yes, I treated him to fried goodness for Valentine’s Day, too — and the guy asked if they had been to a recital. I said, “No, they’re on a date.” And I thought he was going to break his face smiling so big. He thought it was so cute. He even carried their order out to them at their table.

They sat at a 2 person table and chatted. More jokes, more talk about friends and school.

We all finished and they wanted to go for dessert so we headed back to D’s neighborhood and hit the frozen yogurt joint. They ordered and went to sit by themselves again.

It was already after bedtime for both of them so we headed back to D’s house for the drop off. They’re already planning another time to get together and play. But I think maybe we’re done with dates until they’re at least 30.

On the way home, Henry said it was definitely all he hoped it would be. And then promptly passed out.

Being a gentleman is hard work, y’all. (please notice the tie is undone. he’ll make a fabulous fraternity boy one day.)

All in all, I think it was a wonderful night.

I was most impressed with how much of a gentleman Henry was and how much of a lady D was. Yes, they are only 7. But they showed more respect for each other and pride in their manners than most adults show.

I like to think he’s learning to be a gentleman at home. I also like to think that teaching him to respect girls (and others in general) at an early age will serve him well in life.

 

Filed Under: Henry, Memories Tagged With: , , ,

SOC Sunday: Celebrity Addictions

February 12, 2012 By 18 Comments

In light of yesterday’s death of Whitney Houston, iconic singer and the voice of the soundtrack of most of my generation’s teen years, Fadra’s prompt this week for Stream of Consciousness Sunday is…

Celebrities and drugs – do you judge harshly, have mercy, or fit somewhere in between?

#SOCsunday

First let me say that my thoughts and prayers are with Whitney Houston’s family, friends, mentors and mentorees. Most especially, my thoughts are with her daughter who not only lost her mother to death, but very likely feels like she had lost her mother to addiction years ago.

Now, the question is, do I judge celebrity drug use harshly, have mercy or fall somewhere in between.

I think my answer is somewhere in between. Mostly, the emotion it brings up in me is sadness. It makes me sad.

Celebrities at their core are just people like us. They have pressures, they have deadlines, they often have explosive creative minds and they have money. Granted, they have way more money than most everybody I know, but with that money and fame seems to come an amount of peer pressure that we “normal” people can’t understand.

Drug use is a choice at its core. Everyone has two choices: Yes or No.

But addiction is a disease. It’s a disease that impacts every aspect of your life, body, soul and family. It kills. Not only physically, but it kills so much around you.

I think the part of celebrity drug abuse (which is what the prompt asked about, so I’m simply talking about THAT segment of the population) that I don’t understand is why so many of them either never get help or don’t seem to make efforts to stay clean once they’re sober.

I know that in order to decide to get help, you either have to hit rock bottom and be forced into treatment or you have to have enough clarity to know that you are in need of treatment. You have to want to help yourself.

You hear of celebrities going to fancy rehab facilities and coming out ready to take on sober life and then BOOM they’re back in action with their vices again. But you rarely hear of any of them going to wonderful support groups like AA or NA or any of the other 12-step programs. 

I think if I had to say, my sadness stems from the fact that even with their fame, beauty, gobs of money and access to whatever they want whenever they want, their support network is limited. Everyone surrounding them is after money, fame and fortune, too.

Spending a million dollars to “get clean” is only going to work if there is a network of supportive people behind the scenes after the fact. And there seemingly never is.

And THAT makes me sad.

No matter what the actual cause of death is, and we don’t know that as of this minute, her battle with addiction did damage to her life and body that likely fueled her early death.

No matter how you slice it, 48 is far too young to die.

Rest well, Whitney, and all (celebrity and non-celebrity) who have battled addiction and have gone before you.

******************************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post. (on Fadra’s sidebar)
  • Link up your post on her post.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Filed Under: SOC Sunday Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts